20 Facts About Neferefre

Neferefre was most likely the eldest son of pharaoh Neferirkare Kakai and queen Khentkaus II.

Neferefre was known as prince Ranefer before he ascended to the throne.

Neferefre started a pyramid for himself in the royal necropolis of Abusir called Netjeribau Raneferef, which means "The bas of Neferefre are divine".

Together with the sparsity of attestations contemporaneous with his reign, this is taken by Egyptologists as evidence that Neferefre died unexpectedly after two to three years on the throne.

Neferefre was nonetheless buried in his pyramid, hastily completed in the form of a mastaba by his second successor and presumably younger brother, pharaoh Nyuserre Ini.

Neferefre is present on several Ancient Egyptian king lists, all dating to the New Kingdom period.

Neferefre's prenomen was in all probability given on the Turin canon, which dates to the same period as the Saqqara tablet, but it has since been lost in a large lacuna affecting the document.

Neferefre was likely mentioned in the Aegyptiaca, a history of Egypt written in the 3rd century BC during the reign of Ptolemy II by the Egyptian priest Manetho.

Neferefre was, in all likelihood, the eldest son of his predecessor pharaoh Neferirkare Kakai with queen Khentkaus II.

Indeed, not only was Khentkaus III presumably buried during the few decades following Neferefre's reign, but her mastaba is in close proximity to his pyramid, and she bore the title of "king's wife", proving that she was a queen.

Secondly, excavations of Neferefre's pyramid have yielded his mummy, which showed that he was 18 to 20 years of age at the death of Neferirkare.

Consequently, as the previous king's eldest son, in his late teens to early twenties, Neferefre was in optimal position to ascend the throne.

In contrast, Shepseskare's unfinished pyramid does not fall on the line to Heliopolis, which strongly suggests that Neferefre's pyramid had already been in place when Shepseskare started to build his.

Neferefre's conclusion is based on archaeological evidence: the unfinished state of his intended pyramid, and the general paucity of documents datable to his rule.

The combination of archaeological and historical evidence led to the consensus that Neferefre's reign lasted "not longer than about two years".

Neferefre started the construction of a pyramid for himself in the royal necropolis of Abusir, where his father and grandfather had built their own pyramids.

Neferefre had simply been laid on rags and covered with sand for his burial.

Neferefre thus started to cover the pyramid surface with limestone and build the foundation of a stone temple on the pyramid's eastern side.

Neferefre's plans were cut short by his death and the duty of finishing the monument fell on Nyuserre's shoulders, who abandoned the task of covering the pyramid face and instead concentrated on building the mortuary temple in bricks and wood.

The funerary cult of Neferefre seems to have ceased at the end of the Old Kingdom or during the First Intermediate Period.